Saturday, July 11, 2009
♥ and all of a sudden it was like being hit in the head with a dead fish...wtf??
It seems as though as quickly as it had started, my time at the Giro has ended. Today I did not start stage 8 of the Tour.
I've been managing a back injury since I was involved in a crash at the Cootamundra handicap over a couple of months ago back home and unfortunately the stress of stage racing has taken it's toll on it which is why it was suggested that I do not finish the Tour. Beth our soigny has done an amazing job getting me as fit as possible to step over the bike everyday but unfortunately not everyone is as talented as our mate Jens Voigt and my body simply would not shut up and do what it was told. I am now back at the base in Varese on strict instructions to do as little as possible so that I can be back flying for our next race, GP Cento Carnevale on the 18th July.
Needless to say i'm crushed not to be able to have finished what I had started but one thing i've recently come to terms with in my cycling career is that it is always best to look at the bigger picture. I was in no state to be of any use to the team and for the last couple of days I was simply doing my best to drag my butt to the finish. As I said preivously, I didn't come here to be a spectator in the Giro Donne, I came here to race. Dragging my butt to the finish isn't my idea of racing, it isn't in my nature and I know under normal circumstance I could do better. By stopping now i'm able to give my body a better chance to recover and hopefully be back to my old self in no time.
Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
I'm sorry to those who have supported me thus far, I really appreciate all of the words of encouragement and best wishes! It really means a lot. I hope that this is simply a small hurdle which i will overcome and I will be giving you all something to cheer about in no time.
Now i'm going to go drown my sorrows with pizza and gelato :p
Until next time, Take care
Ciao
xx
I've been managing a back injury since I was involved in a crash at the Cootamundra handicap over a couple of months ago back home and unfortunately the stress of stage racing has taken it's toll on it which is why it was suggested that I do not finish the Tour. Beth our soigny has done an amazing job getting me as fit as possible to step over the bike everyday but unfortunately not everyone is as talented as our mate Jens Voigt and my body simply would not shut up and do what it was told. I am now back at the base in Varese on strict instructions to do as little as possible so that I can be back flying for our next race, GP Cento Carnevale on the 18th July.
Needless to say i'm crushed not to be able to have finished what I had started but one thing i've recently come to terms with in my cycling career is that it is always best to look at the bigger picture. I was in no state to be of any use to the team and for the last couple of days I was simply doing my best to drag my butt to the finish. As I said preivously, I didn't come here to be a spectator in the Giro Donne, I came here to race. Dragging my butt to the finish isn't my idea of racing, it isn't in my nature and I know under normal circumstance I could do better. By stopping now i'm able to give my body a better chance to recover and hopefully be back to my old self in no time.
Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
I'm sorry to those who have supported me thus far, I really appreciate all of the words of encouragement and best wishes! It really means a lot. I hope that this is simply a small hurdle which i will overcome and I will be giving you all something to cheer about in no time.
Now i'm going to go drown my sorrows with pizza and gelato :p
Until next time, Take care
Ciao
xx
xxxxxxx
6:12 AM
2 commented
6:12 AM
2 commented
Friday, July 10, 2009
♥ Then there are the days which don't necessarily go to plan...
Apologies again for the delayed updates, who would have thought that the further south we go, the more stone age the motels and the less likelihood of the having internet? But success at last!
Stage 5:
Stage 5 was suppose to be a ‘flat’ stage, and I say ‘flat’ because my idea of a flat stage is one where there are NO HILLS. This ‘flat’ stage comprised of 2 rises of around about 3% which carried on for a good 5km each. Each lap of the course was 27km and for today’s stage we were to complete 4 laps, making it roughly 120km. So I started the stage feeling OK until we got to the first drag and someone (I think it may have been cervelo) decided to lay the smack down. I quickly discovered that my legs weren’t feeling quite as good as I thought/hoped and was struggling at the tail end of the main bunch at the second climb and the majority of the first lap. Coming into the second lap, I knew that in order to hang with the group I needed to position myself as close to the front as possible so I could drift back though the bunch up the climb. Easier said than done. My legs were missing their kick and so gaps in front of me were shut down before I could even get my legs to respond. So I got dropped going up the first ‘false flat’ again. Thankfully I was not the only one and after about 10km of riding solo, a bunch caught me and by the end of the lap we were back at the end of the bunch, where I had just enough time to say Hi to my teammates before being dagged at the bottom of the second climb. And this time I was by myself…(I didn’t know at the time that there was a grupetto about 10min behind me). Coming into the last lap I was thinking to myself ‘please just make time cut…’ when I thought I felt my rear Zipp going flat. I was struggling and thought it was simply my mind playing tricks on me however by the end of the first drag it was evident that my wheel was flat and by the top of the 2nd climb, I was riding on the rim just in time for the decent. Determined not to get pulled from the race and with no communication available through my radio and no spares vehicles in sight, I decended praying that I wouldn’t eat tarmac for the second day in a row. With just under 10km to the finish on the decent, grupetto passed me and the police motor bike told me to jump on and looked at me as if I was stupid going about 15kph on a decent. After finally getting through to him that I had a flat he was on the radio and I had 4 police motor bikes around me. 4km to go and still riding on the flat, a spares motor bike rolled up to me and I got a wheel change, better late than never I guess? I sprinted my butt off to the finish because the police escort and the sag wagon in tow meant that I was now officially the end of the race. I was relieved to finish and it took every bit of mental strength not to give up then and there. But I made it to the end and lived to fight another day… I just hope that I won’t be paying the price too badly after my close to 40km of TTing tomorrow!
Stage 6:
Rest day. That is what today’s stage was meant to be for me. After the ride yesterday, I was somewhat relieved to be told to look after myself and get through the race using as little energy as possible and this meant that as soon as we hit the climb, I was to go straight to grupetto. But as always nothing is quite as it seems and this whole stage is uphill from the word VAI. With the GC contenders firmly in position, today gave the opportunity for those riders lower on GC to get away. This was our team objective today, to try and send someone up the road. But the bunch had different ideas and the pace was on from the start and at some point a group of around about 6 (including Ina Tutenberg and Giorgia Bronzini) slipped away up the road. This group eventually stayed on for the win. The bunch was strung out up the climb before a lengthy decent and by that time for me it was basically game over. Riders were going backwards as the 6 prior days of racing were finally taking their toll. I lasted about 50km with the group before getting spat then spent a while in the convoy trying to drag my butt up to no avail. What hurts the most is seeing riders grabbing onto their team cars and being towed right up to the bunch…Pretty sure that is called cheating. Not long after, a group of about nearly 20 riders came up behind me and I had no choice except to just sit on and limit my losses. Next minute, police motor bikes rock up around us and before I knew it there were riders (from the dodgy Italian teams) grabbing onto the bikes and being towed up the road…Our bunch then dwindled to about 10 riders including Regina Schneider and Charlotte Becker from Nurenberg and Linda Villmanseun from Columbia. As long as those girls were staying there, so was I. I mean we weren’t even grupetto! So it was a long ride to the finish and my legs were counting down the K’s before we would hit the wall with about 800m to go of cobbles at an average gradient of 16%. It was similar to the finish of the Timetrial, except way longer. Girls were zigzagging everywhere and Regina Schneider decked it in front of me and I was thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t come down too. So I grovelled my way to the top of the climb and lived to fight yet another day.
Reading back on my reports you could say that I’m hating life, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m loving the challenge and the invaluable knowledge I’m gaining each and every moment i‘m on the bike. Sure there have been tears but that’s all part of character building. I’m only growing as a bike rider and what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. If I come out of this in one piece I might as well be made of re-enforced steel.
Stage 7:
Lost: legs, if found please return.
When you get dropped within the first 30km of a 120km stage race, you start asking yourself why you do this sport. Today’s stage started at the base of a climb (over 10km in length) and needless to say it wasn’t long before mushroom clouds were seen exploding left right and centre. I made it to the top of the climb dagging between the peleton and one of many chase groups. The chase group of at least 10 riders caught me on the decent and we were joined about 20km down the road by grupetto. We were now a bunch of close to 25 riders and it was again just a case of getting to the finish in one piece. It wasn’t all bad, as it gave me a chance to have a chat to fellow Aussies Kate Bates, Rochelle Gilmore, Emma Mackie and team mate Belinda Goss. One rule of thumb is that you NEVER attack grupetto, unless you feel the need to race for about 140th on GC which most of the lesser teams feel the need to do. With a group the size of ours, you would think that there wuld be no need to get towed but at least 5 girls latched on the police motor bikes nd we never saw them again. Then there were the girls who grabbed on up theclimbs or who motor paced behind their team cars as comssaires turned a blind eye just wishing we’d hurry up and get to the finish. Apart from pissing the girls off, Kate made a good point in saying something similar to ‘these girls who keep on getting paced will be the ones who will always get dropped and never get any better’. Here’s to that. You might as well face the fact that you aren’t strong enough yet to hold onto the main pack and use the rest of the ride as a training ride so that you can learn and one day you will be able to stick with the big girls. It was a long ride to the finish but we made it there in one piece… Turns out it was a hard day in the office for all with no ‘distinctive’ peleton to be seen…
Off the bike, it’s been a ritual of eating, drinking, recovering and sleeping. Safe to say I never want to hear/see the word pasta ever again and I would never have thought I’d see the day where I dreaded having to eat and the very thought of it made me sick. But this is apparently what it’s like to be on tour and you force yourself to eat/drink not only to recover from the day’s race but to ensure you are properly fuelled for the next day. You got to put up with the rain in order to get to see the rainbow.
Our team of mechanics/soigneurs are working around the clock to make sure we have to do as little as possible and it is only by doing tours like these where you truly start to appreciate all the things that they do. On arrival at our motels, Dave has our bags up in our rooms and room allocations all sorted. Nico our mechanic pulls out the hose and cleans/fixes/adjusts our bikes and gets them ready for the next day’s race. Beth and Laura do our laundry, get us food (apparently we go through nearly 20 bananas a day!!), wash biddons, make race food and look after logistics. Then Beth gives up to 6 riders massages/treatments and changes dressings and makes sure we are fit to fight another day whilst Laura analyses files from the day’s race and calculates our hydration loss and asks us questions about each stage to get a better understanding things like if we feel good on the bike if our power is high, or if we feel bad but power still high and vice versa. So whilst we are resting and watching movies, everyone is working their butts off to make sure we can race the next day in the best conditions possible. I definitely feel privileged to be part of this team.
So 3 more days of racing and this means 3 more opportunities t try and make an impact/impression on the race. I came here to race, not to do a 120km training ride every day and I’m doing everything I possibly can to make sure that I can recover and get the form back which I had at the start of the tour so that I can finally fulfil my role for the team and help Tiff claim the white jersey. I’m sick of being a spectator in the game, I want to start being a player. Jens Voigt stated something along to lines of “when my legs start to burn I say to my body ‘shut up boy and do what I tell you to do’”. Tomorrow, I’m going to bring ear plugs.
The tour may be done and won by the time I next get a chance to update but until then, take care.
Ciao
Miffy xx
Stage 5:
Stage 5 was suppose to be a ‘flat’ stage, and I say ‘flat’ because my idea of a flat stage is one where there are NO HILLS. This ‘flat’ stage comprised of 2 rises of around about 3% which carried on for a good 5km each. Each lap of the course was 27km and for today’s stage we were to complete 4 laps, making it roughly 120km. So I started the stage feeling OK until we got to the first drag and someone (I think it may have been cervelo) decided to lay the smack down. I quickly discovered that my legs weren’t feeling quite as good as I thought/hoped and was struggling at the tail end of the main bunch at the second climb and the majority of the first lap. Coming into the second lap, I knew that in order to hang with the group I needed to position myself as close to the front as possible so I could drift back though the bunch up the climb. Easier said than done. My legs were missing their kick and so gaps in front of me were shut down before I could even get my legs to respond. So I got dropped going up the first ‘false flat’ again. Thankfully I was not the only one and after about 10km of riding solo, a bunch caught me and by the end of the lap we were back at the end of the bunch, where I had just enough time to say Hi to my teammates before being dagged at the bottom of the second climb. And this time I was by myself…(I didn’t know at the time that there was a grupetto about 10min behind me). Coming into the last lap I was thinking to myself ‘please just make time cut…’ when I thought I felt my rear Zipp going flat. I was struggling and thought it was simply my mind playing tricks on me however by the end of the first drag it was evident that my wheel was flat and by the top of the 2nd climb, I was riding on the rim just in time for the decent. Determined not to get pulled from the race and with no communication available through my radio and no spares vehicles in sight, I decended praying that I wouldn’t eat tarmac for the second day in a row. With just under 10km to the finish on the decent, grupetto passed me and the police motor bike told me to jump on and looked at me as if I was stupid going about 15kph on a decent. After finally getting through to him that I had a flat he was on the radio and I had 4 police motor bikes around me. 4km to go and still riding on the flat, a spares motor bike rolled up to me and I got a wheel change, better late than never I guess? I sprinted my butt off to the finish because the police escort and the sag wagon in tow meant that I was now officially the end of the race. I was relieved to finish and it took every bit of mental strength not to give up then and there. But I made it to the end and lived to fight another day… I just hope that I won’t be paying the price too badly after my close to 40km of TTing tomorrow!
Stage 6:
Rest day. That is what today’s stage was meant to be for me. After the ride yesterday, I was somewhat relieved to be told to look after myself and get through the race using as little energy as possible and this meant that as soon as we hit the climb, I was to go straight to grupetto. But as always nothing is quite as it seems and this whole stage is uphill from the word VAI. With the GC contenders firmly in position, today gave the opportunity for those riders lower on GC to get away. This was our team objective today, to try and send someone up the road. But the bunch had different ideas and the pace was on from the start and at some point a group of around about 6 (including Ina Tutenberg and Giorgia Bronzini) slipped away up the road. This group eventually stayed on for the win. The bunch was strung out up the climb before a lengthy decent and by that time for me it was basically game over. Riders were going backwards as the 6 prior days of racing were finally taking their toll. I lasted about 50km with the group before getting spat then spent a while in the convoy trying to drag my butt up to no avail. What hurts the most is seeing riders grabbing onto their team cars and being towed right up to the bunch…Pretty sure that is called cheating. Not long after, a group of about nearly 20 riders came up behind me and I had no choice except to just sit on and limit my losses. Next minute, police motor bikes rock up around us and before I knew it there were riders (from the dodgy Italian teams) grabbing onto the bikes and being towed up the road…Our bunch then dwindled to about 10 riders including Regina Schneider and Charlotte Becker from Nurenberg and Linda Villmanseun from Columbia. As long as those girls were staying there, so was I. I mean we weren’t even grupetto! So it was a long ride to the finish and my legs were counting down the K’s before we would hit the wall with about 800m to go of cobbles at an average gradient of 16%. It was similar to the finish of the Timetrial, except way longer. Girls were zigzagging everywhere and Regina Schneider decked it in front of me and I was thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t come down too. So I grovelled my way to the top of the climb and lived to fight yet another day.
Reading back on my reports you could say that I’m hating life, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m loving the challenge and the invaluable knowledge I’m gaining each and every moment i‘m on the bike. Sure there have been tears but that’s all part of character building. I’m only growing as a bike rider and what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. If I come out of this in one piece I might as well be made of re-enforced steel.
Stage 7:
Lost: legs, if found please return.
When you get dropped within the first 30km of a 120km stage race, you start asking yourself why you do this sport. Today’s stage started at the base of a climb (over 10km in length) and needless to say it wasn’t long before mushroom clouds were seen exploding left right and centre. I made it to the top of the climb dagging between the peleton and one of many chase groups. The chase group of at least 10 riders caught me on the decent and we were joined about 20km down the road by grupetto. We were now a bunch of close to 25 riders and it was again just a case of getting to the finish in one piece. It wasn’t all bad, as it gave me a chance to have a chat to fellow Aussies Kate Bates, Rochelle Gilmore, Emma Mackie and team mate Belinda Goss. One rule of thumb is that you NEVER attack grupetto, unless you feel the need to race for about 140th on GC which most of the lesser teams feel the need to do. With a group the size of ours, you would think that there wuld be no need to get towed but at least 5 girls latched on the police motor bikes nd we never saw them again. Then there were the girls who grabbed on up theclimbs or who motor paced behind their team cars as comssaires turned a blind eye just wishing we’d hurry up and get to the finish. Apart from pissing the girls off, Kate made a good point in saying something similar to ‘these girls who keep on getting paced will be the ones who will always get dropped and never get any better’. Here’s to that. You might as well face the fact that you aren’t strong enough yet to hold onto the main pack and use the rest of the ride as a training ride so that you can learn and one day you will be able to stick with the big girls. It was a long ride to the finish but we made it there in one piece… Turns out it was a hard day in the office for all with no ‘distinctive’ peleton to be seen…
Off the bike, it’s been a ritual of eating, drinking, recovering and sleeping. Safe to say I never want to hear/see the word pasta ever again and I would never have thought I’d see the day where I dreaded having to eat and the very thought of it made me sick. But this is apparently what it’s like to be on tour and you force yourself to eat/drink not only to recover from the day’s race but to ensure you are properly fuelled for the next day. You got to put up with the rain in order to get to see the rainbow.
Our team of mechanics/soigneurs are working around the clock to make sure we have to do as little as possible and it is only by doing tours like these where you truly start to appreciate all the things that they do. On arrival at our motels, Dave has our bags up in our rooms and room allocations all sorted. Nico our mechanic pulls out the hose and cleans/fixes/adjusts our bikes and gets them ready for the next day’s race. Beth and Laura do our laundry, get us food (apparently we go through nearly 20 bananas a day!!), wash biddons, make race food and look after logistics. Then Beth gives up to 6 riders massages/treatments and changes dressings and makes sure we are fit to fight another day whilst Laura analyses files from the day’s race and calculates our hydration loss and asks us questions about each stage to get a better understanding things like if we feel good on the bike if our power is high, or if we feel bad but power still high and vice versa. So whilst we are resting and watching movies, everyone is working their butts off to make sure we can race the next day in the best conditions possible. I definitely feel privileged to be part of this team.
So 3 more days of racing and this means 3 more opportunities t try and make an impact/impression on the race. I came here to race, not to do a 120km training ride every day and I’m doing everything I possibly can to make sure that I can recover and get the form back which I had at the start of the tour so that I can finally fulfil my role for the team and help Tiff claim the white jersey. I’m sick of being a spectator in the game, I want to start being a player. Jens Voigt stated something along to lines of “when my legs start to burn I say to my body ‘shut up boy and do what I tell you to do’”. Tomorrow, I’m going to bring ear plugs.
The tour may be done and won by the time I next get a chance to update but until then, take care.
Ciao
Miffy xx
xxxxxxx
4:50 AM
0 commented
4:50 AM
0 commented
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
♥ We're Back Online
Yes it’s been a while since I’ve last updated, but this is because I’ve been travelling around the North of Italy with the 2009 Giro Donne. For the last 3 days I’ve been in a little motel somewhere near Pisa, with no internet, much to the horror of most of the girls! As we speak I’m sitting in a nice 4 star hotel in Fermo right on the beach, the sun is shining and looks like a perfect day for racing. Unfortunately from today onwards we move hotels every night so there is no time to get settled and long transfers after racing become the norm.
So here’s how the Giro Donne has played out so far:
Prologue:
The prologue was a 2.5km hotdog loop around the streets of Scarperia. It started with a short rise before a long downhill straight and uphill finish. I was pumped with adrenalin leading into the TT. Rolling up to the start line and seeing the likes of team Columbia and Cervelo, and people wearing their national jersey’s and the World Champion bands was overwhelming. As I was rolling up to the start, Marv wished me luck and said to have fun. I’m riding for my country in one of the biggest women’s stage races in the world. How could I not have fun? Sitting on the start line awaiting my start, I couldn’t believe what I’d gotten myself into. I was about to embark on one of my biggest learning journeys yet, that some of my biggest dreams were starting to unfold right in front of me. The clock hit 0 and it was time to go off, and just as quickly as it had started, it was over. I’d just finished the first stage in the Giro. Kirstin Wild from Cervelo won it and Tiff Cromwell was the best placed from the Aussie Team in a time of. A little disappointed, I finished in with a time of 2min29.
Stage 1:
Stage 1 was a 99.9km loop from San Piero to Sieve and Pratolino di Vaglia. It was a relatively flat course with 2 rises in the 2nd part of the course, the first one an average of 3% for km and then the last one a nasty 2km steep finish. My job for the day, and the Tour, is to be Carlee’s right hand man. It is my responsibility to try and help Carlee to position herself in the front of the bunch and help her whenever she needs it. I have to admit I was a little nervous with the role that I was given as Carlee (along with Tiff) is one of our GC contenders and so it was my responsibility to make sure she had to do as little as possible to save herself for the hiller stages when GC would be decided. Overall, I was really happy with how rode and fulfilled my role. I was positioned in the top half of the field for the whole race and managed to get Carlee into some better positions leading into the bases of the climbs. I’m not sure if I was still running on adrenalin or was just ‘in the zone’ but looking back on the race now, I don’t know how the hell I managed to fit through some of the gaps I did or move around the bunch like I did. One of the highlights for me would have been sitting on the back of the Columbia train as they dragged a few of their riders to the front. Definitely a cool moment there. I finished off the back of the main group with some of the other Aussie girls as my role was done for the day and I had done all that I could to help Carlee. It was then just a matter of getting myself to the finish using as little energy as possible. After the race, we rode back to where the van was to find our own seats with our own protein bottle, sandwich and bags all laid out in front. Buckets with water and towels were there to cool ourselves down and Nico and Dave were taking our bikes off us as we rolled in. I couldn’t believe how well organised the team is, and little did I know that this is what would happen everyday that we were on tour :)
Stage 2: 15km TT
I woke up this morning with a sickly feeling in my stomach. I’m not the best time trialist the world has ever seen and frankly, to be honest, they make me feel a little nervous. However, Marv came and spoke to Lauren and I shortly before departure and said that today we’d be having a ‘rest day’ and for us to only go 80%. Oddly enough, instead of feeling relieved, I was a little worried. Going 80% in probably my biggest time trial to date? But I soon looked at the bigger picture and my role in helping Carlee was far more important to me than giving everything in the TT, so I took the opportunity to conquer my fears and concentrate on my technique and practice my race script instead. The time trial ended up being quite enjoyable, I was happy with the way I rode it although the sharp pinch 500m from the end on cobbles through some narrow road through the houses proved somewhat of a challenging surprise (a girl who passed me shortly before we hit the climb literally came to a track stand!). I still finished mid field (I think 69th) however I think there were a few other girls who were having ‘a rest day’ also :p Tiff was our highest place getter on GC and now sits 3rd in the young rider classification
Stage 3: 90km, Monte Serra hill top finish.
What is today? Today is the most important day of our lives until tomorrow. Day 4 was dubbed the ‘Queen Stage’ of the Tour. It was on this stage last year that Luperini broke away from the field to win by 1min30 and secure the leader’s jersey. Needless to say, similar to last year, today would have a major impact on GC. Again today my role was to help out Carlee as best as possible. Loud cracks of thunder sent us off and within minutes, there was a heavy downpour and we were soaked to the bone. This made the 50km of flat before the climbs a lot more interesting. I was unable to move up through the bunch as I had on the first stage as there were mini ponds on the sides of the road and so was forced to fight my way through the much more edgy bunch. Visibility was minimal and scretching brakes and yells were heard frequently and of course there were a few crashes. I got caught up in one but fortunately managed to unclip as the girl infront of me tumbled down the side of the road but Lauren wasn’t so lucky getting caught up in another crash and after requiring a bike change, slipped on a white line as she was being towed back into the bunch! Looking a little worse for wear, she but on a brave face and set a good example for the team which is why she is our team Leader. She is a bit of a tough nut :P . Meanwhile I was still struggling with position when I heard over the radio that Carlee had punctured. I used the opportunity to go back with her and help to tow her back up to the bunch with Chloe and Belinda before the base of the first climb which was rapidly approaching. We managed to get her up in time but the mass of riders negotiating the narrow roads made it dfficult to get into the first half of the bunch. I was still in the tail end of the bunch when we hit the climb, I started to pass riders when the ‘grupetto’ started to form. Lauren and I managed to get into another group in front of grupetto and tempoed to the top of the first 9km climb. Our job was done, there was nothing else we could do for our GC riders now except to make it to the end of the race in one piece. If only it had happened that way. On the 10km decent, I was feathering the brakes to get some of the leftover water off before coming into a hairpin turn when much to my shock nothing was happening. The corner was coming up fast and still nothing from my brakes. I signalled to the girls to come past and took the corner as wide and best I could but slipped out and found myself in the gutter. Loz stopped to help me and the US team car also helped to peel me off the road and get me back on the bike. The rest of the decent was slow and tedious as there was still little response from my brakes. A small group caught us at the base of the decent and dragged our butts with them to the finish up Monte Serra.
All in all, not a terrible day in the office but not one of my finest either. I think I let the weather conditions get to me and never quite settled in. But I was able to take away a few things from the race also, like the importance of positioning in the bunch, that when a small bunch forms behind the leader’s bunch you do not attack it and all roll to the end together just to name a few.
This tour has been one of the steepest learning curves of my career to date and i'm enjoying learning the ins and outs of international racing and I feel that this experience can only help mould me into a bigger and better bike rider :D
Until next time,
Take care
Ciao xx
So here’s how the Giro Donne has played out so far:
Prologue:
The prologue was a 2.5km hotdog loop around the streets of Scarperia. It started with a short rise before a long downhill straight and uphill finish. I was pumped with adrenalin leading into the TT. Rolling up to the start line and seeing the likes of team Columbia and Cervelo, and people wearing their national jersey’s and the World Champion bands was overwhelming. As I was rolling up to the start, Marv wished me luck and said to have fun. I’m riding for my country in one of the biggest women’s stage races in the world. How could I not have fun? Sitting on the start line awaiting my start, I couldn’t believe what I’d gotten myself into. I was about to embark on one of my biggest learning journeys yet, that some of my biggest dreams were starting to unfold right in front of me. The clock hit 0 and it was time to go off, and just as quickly as it had started, it was over. I’d just finished the first stage in the Giro. Kirstin Wild from Cervelo won it and Tiff Cromwell was the best placed from the Aussie Team in a time of. A little disappointed, I finished in with a time of 2min29.
Stage 1:
Stage 1 was a 99.9km loop from San Piero to Sieve and Pratolino di Vaglia. It was a relatively flat course with 2 rises in the 2nd part of the course, the first one an average of 3% for km and then the last one a nasty 2km steep finish. My job for the day, and the Tour, is to be Carlee’s right hand man. It is my responsibility to try and help Carlee to position herself in the front of the bunch and help her whenever she needs it. I have to admit I was a little nervous with the role that I was given as Carlee (along with Tiff) is one of our GC contenders and so it was my responsibility to make sure she had to do as little as possible to save herself for the hiller stages when GC would be decided. Overall, I was really happy with how rode and fulfilled my role. I was positioned in the top half of the field for the whole race and managed to get Carlee into some better positions leading into the bases of the climbs. I’m not sure if I was still running on adrenalin or was just ‘in the zone’ but looking back on the race now, I don’t know how the hell I managed to fit through some of the gaps I did or move around the bunch like I did. One of the highlights for me would have been sitting on the back of the Columbia train as they dragged a few of their riders to the front. Definitely a cool moment there. I finished off the back of the main group with some of the other Aussie girls as my role was done for the day and I had done all that I could to help Carlee. It was then just a matter of getting myself to the finish using as little energy as possible. After the race, we rode back to where the van was to find our own seats with our own protein bottle, sandwich and bags all laid out in front. Buckets with water and towels were there to cool ourselves down and Nico and Dave were taking our bikes off us as we rolled in. I couldn’t believe how well organised the team is, and little did I know that this is what would happen everyday that we were on tour :)
Stage 2: 15km TT
I woke up this morning with a sickly feeling in my stomach. I’m not the best time trialist the world has ever seen and frankly, to be honest, they make me feel a little nervous. However, Marv came and spoke to Lauren and I shortly before departure and said that today we’d be having a ‘rest day’ and for us to only go 80%. Oddly enough, instead of feeling relieved, I was a little worried. Going 80% in probably my biggest time trial to date? But I soon looked at the bigger picture and my role in helping Carlee was far more important to me than giving everything in the TT, so I took the opportunity to conquer my fears and concentrate on my technique and practice my race script instead. The time trial ended up being quite enjoyable, I was happy with the way I rode it although the sharp pinch 500m from the end on cobbles through some narrow road through the houses proved somewhat of a challenging surprise (a girl who passed me shortly before we hit the climb literally came to a track stand!). I still finished mid field (I think 69th) however I think there were a few other girls who were having ‘a rest day’ also :p Tiff was our highest place getter on GC and now sits 3rd in the young rider classification
Stage 3: 90km, Monte Serra hill top finish.
What is today? Today is the most important day of our lives until tomorrow. Day 4 was dubbed the ‘Queen Stage’ of the Tour. It was on this stage last year that Luperini broke away from the field to win by 1min30 and secure the leader’s jersey. Needless to say, similar to last year, today would have a major impact on GC. Again today my role was to help out Carlee as best as possible. Loud cracks of thunder sent us off and within minutes, there was a heavy downpour and we were soaked to the bone. This made the 50km of flat before the climbs a lot more interesting. I was unable to move up through the bunch as I had on the first stage as there were mini ponds on the sides of the road and so was forced to fight my way through the much more edgy bunch. Visibility was minimal and scretching brakes and yells were heard frequently and of course there were a few crashes. I got caught up in one but fortunately managed to unclip as the girl infront of me tumbled down the side of the road but Lauren wasn’t so lucky getting caught up in another crash and after requiring a bike change, slipped on a white line as she was being towed back into the bunch! Looking a little worse for wear, she but on a brave face and set a good example for the team which is why she is our team Leader. She is a bit of a tough nut :P . Meanwhile I was still struggling with position when I heard over the radio that Carlee had punctured. I used the opportunity to go back with her and help to tow her back up to the bunch with Chloe and Belinda before the base of the first climb which was rapidly approaching. We managed to get her up in time but the mass of riders negotiating the narrow roads made it dfficult to get into the first half of the bunch. I was still in the tail end of the bunch when we hit the climb, I started to pass riders when the ‘grupetto’ started to form. Lauren and I managed to get into another group in front of grupetto and tempoed to the top of the first 9km climb. Our job was done, there was nothing else we could do for our GC riders now except to make it to the end of the race in one piece. If only it had happened that way. On the 10km decent, I was feathering the brakes to get some of the leftover water off before coming into a hairpin turn when much to my shock nothing was happening. The corner was coming up fast and still nothing from my brakes. I signalled to the girls to come past and took the corner as wide and best I could but slipped out and found myself in the gutter. Loz stopped to help me and the US team car also helped to peel me off the road and get me back on the bike. The rest of the decent was slow and tedious as there was still little response from my brakes. A small group caught us at the base of the decent and dragged our butts with them to the finish up Monte Serra.
All in all, not a terrible day in the office but not one of my finest either. I think I let the weather conditions get to me and never quite settled in. But I was able to take away a few things from the race also, like the importance of positioning in the bunch, that when a small bunch forms behind the leader’s bunch you do not attack it and all roll to the end together just to name a few.
This tour has been one of the steepest learning curves of my career to date and i'm enjoying learning the ins and outs of international racing and I feel that this experience can only help mould me into a bigger and better bike rider :D
Until next time,
Take care
Ciao xx
xxxxxxx
5:38 AM
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5:38 AM
0 commented
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Ah recovery days. After smashing yourself for over a week, it’s nice to unwind with a cruisey ride where you have time to take in the scenery around you and even make a brew stop or two. That is what we have on the program today :) After a pretty solid few days, my body is relishing the fact today I will not be crawling back from this ride on my knees. And how exactly have I come to reach this point? Well since our last double session, we’ve ventured close to 4hrs south to do a recon of Stage 3 of the Giro Donne (also dubbed as the ‘Queen stage’) which includes 2 climbs which are close to 9km in length. The stage starts of with a flat 50km before winding through a little town up the first climb, then down a long decent with another flat section not long before we start the climb to the hill top finish up Monte Serra. It is definitely going to be a tough one but at least now I’ve seen the climbs so hopefully it will not be too much of a shock to the system as I know it’s humanly possible to haul my butt up them!
We’ve also done some more motor pacing and yesterday ventured up what is more commonly know as the ‘Basso Climb’, I’m just hoping that means I’ll now climb like him! Now just a couple of more days for our bodies to recover before we tackle the Giro Donne head on!
Off the bike, the girls and I have enjoyed yet more gelati, grocery shopping, Italian lessons, shopping excursions and pizza eating. I even managed to catch up with fellow Canberran Vicki Whitelaw and her husband Dave who are currently living about 40km from where we are! It was great to catch up with them and hear how Vicki is coping with life as a pro cyclist, plus it was nice just to see another friendly face! It sure is a small world! We originally met at what the girls call the ‘chocolate spoon café’ which was dubbed that as the hot chocolates are actually served with a chocolate spoon! However, much to my disappointment, it was closed so we had to settle for another café where I had a very respectable hazelnut smoothie, not quite a chocolate spoon but I still rated it :)
We’ve also hit up the train to do a spot of shopping Varese before getting stuck in a thunderstorm in hail whilst having yet another mouth watering gigantor pizza from della Motta. Hmmm. I’ve finally mastered the food ordering process and can now add/change ingredients at my discretion; nothing is going to stop me now!! Who knows what random concoctions I’ll come up with next! We also had fun talking to one of the waiters who when we proceeded to give him a tip, kindly declined it in what we thought was a very polite manner before adding ‘I only take notes’, all in good spirits though. After having a bit of a laugh over that, we decided it would be funny to leave him a $5 Aussie note which he took as a souvenir, little did he know that it was well below the value of the 15 euro tip that we’d originally left for him!
Today I’m going out the lunch with some of the girls to Bar Cavour, home of my very first Italian hot chocolate. Apparently they don’t have a menu and you simply ask for whatever ingredients you want on your Panini or salad and voila! Just for something different.
My roommate Belinda Goss has also finally arrived! It’s great to have someone else around, started to get a bit lonely! And the U23 boys have come back to the base and Marv and Laura both arrive today so the base is crawling with action!
Our nights have been filled with more high stakes UNO bliss and we have decided that we are going to hold the inaugural UNO World Championships! Winner takes all. We’ve also discovered one of the dangers of owning a credit card = online shopping. Last night, the girls and I spent hours scavenging through the Victoria’s Secret website and we ended up with an order bordering on $400 worth of swimmers and dresses! You could hardly blame us, with a one day only sale of 20-60% it was an offer we simply couldn’t refuse!! So hopefully when we get back form the Giro, we’ll have a nice little package waiting for us on the doorstep . It was also an excellent team bonding exercise, with girls each giving their 2 cents worth, phrases such as ‘you’d look so hot in that’ and ‘nah, you have to be a skinny bitch to pull that off’ were thrown around and peer pressure was used heavily on the indecisive. I ended up with a bikini and a dress, chosen for me with the help of the team of personal shoppers :P can’t wait until they arrive!
Yesterday was also our last Italian lesson until we get back from the Giro. Ariane treated us those who had done their homework to a lovely homemade cheese cake. We’ve learnt a lot in our lessons and I now feel confident that I have been provided with enough material to get by in Italy it was also another great team bonding experience, with the girls each discussing how we could cure the ‘drought’ that has plagued a few of us over the last few months :P
We’ve also are starting to get organised for the Giro which starts this Friday with the 2.5km prologue. I didn’t actually realise just how fortunate I was to be apart of the Australian team. I wouldn’t be joking when I said all you had to do was ride your bike. At a brief meeting we had yesterday, we were told that all meals/snack food/biddons was taken care of, that our washing would be done every night for us, we’d get massages at least every 2nd day and all of the recovery stuff and bike equipment taken care of. We sure are spoilt!! I feel a bit lazy actually…
Well I think that is all that has been happening over the last couple of days..I’ll try and give another quick entry before we head off for the Giro as who knows when we’ll have internet!
Until then, take care and best of luck to all those riding the Canberra Tour!
Ciao Ciao
Miffy xx
We’ve also done some more motor pacing and yesterday ventured up what is more commonly know as the ‘Basso Climb’, I’m just hoping that means I’ll now climb like him! Now just a couple of more days for our bodies to recover before we tackle the Giro Donne head on!
Off the bike, the girls and I have enjoyed yet more gelati, grocery shopping, Italian lessons, shopping excursions and pizza eating. I even managed to catch up with fellow Canberran Vicki Whitelaw and her husband Dave who are currently living about 40km from where we are! It was great to catch up with them and hear how Vicki is coping with life as a pro cyclist, plus it was nice just to see another friendly face! It sure is a small world! We originally met at what the girls call the ‘chocolate spoon café’ which was dubbed that as the hot chocolates are actually served with a chocolate spoon! However, much to my disappointment, it was closed so we had to settle for another café where I had a very respectable hazelnut smoothie, not quite a chocolate spoon but I still rated it :)
We’ve also hit up the train to do a spot of shopping Varese before getting stuck in a thunderstorm in hail whilst having yet another mouth watering gigantor pizza from della Motta. Hmmm. I’ve finally mastered the food ordering process and can now add/change ingredients at my discretion; nothing is going to stop me now!! Who knows what random concoctions I’ll come up with next! We also had fun talking to one of the waiters who when we proceeded to give him a tip, kindly declined it in what we thought was a very polite manner before adding ‘I only take notes’, all in good spirits though. After having a bit of a laugh over that, we decided it would be funny to leave him a $5 Aussie note which he took as a souvenir, little did he know that it was well below the value of the 15 euro tip that we’d originally left for him!
Today I’m going out the lunch with some of the girls to Bar Cavour, home of my very first Italian hot chocolate. Apparently they don’t have a menu and you simply ask for whatever ingredients you want on your Panini or salad and voila! Just for something different.
My roommate Belinda Goss has also finally arrived! It’s great to have someone else around, started to get a bit lonely! And the U23 boys have come back to the base and Marv and Laura both arrive today so the base is crawling with action!
Our nights have been filled with more high stakes UNO bliss and we have decided that we are going to hold the inaugural UNO World Championships! Winner takes all. We’ve also discovered one of the dangers of owning a credit card = online shopping. Last night, the girls and I spent hours scavenging through the Victoria’s Secret website and we ended up with an order bordering on $400 worth of swimmers and dresses! You could hardly blame us, with a one day only sale of 20-60% it was an offer we simply couldn’t refuse!! So hopefully when we get back form the Giro, we’ll have a nice little package waiting for us on the doorstep . It was also an excellent team bonding exercise, with girls each giving their 2 cents worth, phrases such as ‘you’d look so hot in that’ and ‘nah, you have to be a skinny bitch to pull that off’ were thrown around and peer pressure was used heavily on the indecisive. I ended up with a bikini and a dress, chosen for me with the help of the team of personal shoppers :P can’t wait until they arrive!
Yesterday was also our last Italian lesson until we get back from the Giro. Ariane treated us those who had done their homework to a lovely homemade cheese cake. We’ve learnt a lot in our lessons and I now feel confident that I have been provided with enough material to get by in Italy it was also another great team bonding experience, with the girls each discussing how we could cure the ‘drought’ that has plagued a few of us over the last few months :P
We’ve also are starting to get organised for the Giro which starts this Friday with the 2.5km prologue. I didn’t actually realise just how fortunate I was to be apart of the Australian team. I wouldn’t be joking when I said all you had to do was ride your bike. At a brief meeting we had yesterday, we were told that all meals/snack food/biddons was taken care of, that our washing would be done every night for us, we’d get massages at least every 2nd day and all of the recovery stuff and bike equipment taken care of. We sure are spoilt!! I feel a bit lazy actually…
Well I think that is all that has been happening over the last couple of days..I’ll try and give another quick entry before we head off for the Giro as who knows when we’ll have internet!
Until then, take care and best of luck to all those riding the Canberra Tour!
Ciao Ciao
Miffy xx
xxxxxxx
12:53 AM
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12:53 AM
0 commented
Saturday, June 27, 2009
♥ Just like living in paradise...
Eat, ride, eat some more, stretch, recover and sleep. They are basically the only things you have to worry about over here. Forget work, forget all the dramas back home and concentrate purely on what you are here to do, ride your bike.
Over the past few days, we’ve embarked on more challenging training rides such as double sessions and more recently a 6hr ride with SEs and a 10km climb followed by some pacelining in the 35 degree heat!! We also rode over part of the 2009 World Road Race course, it’s definitely one for the climbers! Although it may have seemed like an epic day in the saddle, after a recovery day yesterday we are ready to get stuck in and do it all over again today! Motor pacing this morning then in the arvo we are pulling out the big guns with some power climbs!
Off the bike, we have started having our Italian Lessons. Ariane has been given the duty of teaching us some basic Italian so that we can survive whilst we are over here. We’ve had a couple of lessons so far and I’m really enjoying learning another language and make an effort at every opportunity I get to try and practice it with the locals. I even managed to order myself a piece of steak (I made sure I learnt how to say the word ‘beef’ so I wouldn’t end up eating horse or anything :p) from the butcher who then proceeded to have a conversation in Italian with me to which I had to reply ‘Mi scusi, non capsico!’ I’m still working on it but my goal is to be able to have something that sort of resembles a proper conversation with someone by the time I get home!!
Not surprisingly, the girls and I have also ventured across the road for numerous gelati trips. The man who owns the shop makes the gelati fresh every morning fee from preservatives and with all natural ingredients (yes, so that gives me the right to have it everyday and not feel guilty :) ) and since he uses whatever ingredients he has on hand, you never know which flavours he is going to have!! So far I have had: banana, coconut, strachiatella, hazelnut, strawberry, some rice crispy one, a ferrero rocher one and something called ‘biscotto’ (which is basically the cookies and cream equivalent to gelati)!! My favourites so far are by far the biscotto and banana however these seem not to be made very often…Oh well, just means I’ll have to get extra when it is there :P And since we are talking about food, I think I’ve mastered the whole ‘cooking your own food in Italy’ situation. I now know what you can and can’t buy (no, don’t bother looking for ‘mixed herbs on spices’ in the racks…) and have been introduced to the world of fresh bread and cheeses. Yesterday I bought a fresh loaf of bread form the pizza restaurant called Risto around the corner, it was still warm when I bought it and needless to day it didn’t last long after I used it for lunch and made the tastiest bruschetta know to man for dinner that night!
The girls and I have also taken UNO to a whole new level, making it ‘high stakes’ UNO. Screams and shrieks can be heard well into the evening as whoever loses is forced to do whatever punishment the group has decided on before hand. So far Chloe has been the only unlucky one having to wear chamois cream on her face instead of sunscreen and today has to do the motor pacing session in leg and arm warmers which may not seem bad for those of you back home, but when it’s a lovely summers day like it is here...Let’s just say I’m glad its not me!
So apart from that, nothing much else has been happening. Belinda Goss arrives today so I am no longer by my lonesome which will make for a nice change! Rumour also has it that we are going to do a recon of the time trial and one of the climbs in the Giro (the Monte Serra) tomorrow which will be good! And we are also thinking of heading into Milan to do a bit of shopping either Monday or Wednesday and we have a date with the Pizza restaurant scheduled in there too!! Beth is also back so we are being pampered with massages and Ariane now comes twice a week for Italian lessons!
So things are looking pretty good over here. I think my body has finally started to adjust to the time zones after waking up at 5-530am everyday since I’ve been here, I was relieved this morning to roll over and see my watch was ticking over close to 630am!! Success!! And I’m starting to feel my legs again too which is good considering the training that we have coming up! Not to mention something we call the Giro starting just around the corner….
So until next time, take care
Ciao
Miffy
xx
P.S Uploading photos seems to be a touchy subject for my computer at the moment... I will try again soon but in the mean time feel free to check out my photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=275166&id=746470234&l=7a4717fe97
Over the past few days, we’ve embarked on more challenging training rides such as double sessions and more recently a 6hr ride with SEs and a 10km climb followed by some pacelining in the 35 degree heat!! We also rode over part of the 2009 World Road Race course, it’s definitely one for the climbers! Although it may have seemed like an epic day in the saddle, after a recovery day yesterday we are ready to get stuck in and do it all over again today! Motor pacing this morning then in the arvo we are pulling out the big guns with some power climbs!
Off the bike, we have started having our Italian Lessons. Ariane has been given the duty of teaching us some basic Italian so that we can survive whilst we are over here. We’ve had a couple of lessons so far and I’m really enjoying learning another language and make an effort at every opportunity I get to try and practice it with the locals. I even managed to order myself a piece of steak (I made sure I learnt how to say the word ‘beef’ so I wouldn’t end up eating horse or anything :p) from the butcher who then proceeded to have a conversation in Italian with me to which I had to reply ‘Mi scusi, non capsico!’ I’m still working on it but my goal is to be able to have something that sort of resembles a proper conversation with someone by the time I get home!!
Not surprisingly, the girls and I have also ventured across the road for numerous gelati trips. The man who owns the shop makes the gelati fresh every morning fee from preservatives and with all natural ingredients (yes, so that gives me the right to have it everyday and not feel guilty :) ) and since he uses whatever ingredients he has on hand, you never know which flavours he is going to have!! So far I have had: banana, coconut, strachiatella, hazelnut, strawberry, some rice crispy one, a ferrero rocher one and something called ‘biscotto’ (which is basically the cookies and cream equivalent to gelati)!! My favourites so far are by far the biscotto and banana however these seem not to be made very often…Oh well, just means I’ll have to get extra when it is there :P And since we are talking about food, I think I’ve mastered the whole ‘cooking your own food in Italy’ situation. I now know what you can and can’t buy (no, don’t bother looking for ‘mixed herbs on spices’ in the racks…) and have been introduced to the world of fresh bread and cheeses. Yesterday I bought a fresh loaf of bread form the pizza restaurant called Risto around the corner, it was still warm when I bought it and needless to day it didn’t last long after I used it for lunch and made the tastiest bruschetta know to man for dinner that night!
The girls and I have also taken UNO to a whole new level, making it ‘high stakes’ UNO. Screams and shrieks can be heard well into the evening as whoever loses is forced to do whatever punishment the group has decided on before hand. So far Chloe has been the only unlucky one having to wear chamois cream on her face instead of sunscreen and today has to do the motor pacing session in leg and arm warmers which may not seem bad for those of you back home, but when it’s a lovely summers day like it is here...Let’s just say I’m glad its not me!
So apart from that, nothing much else has been happening. Belinda Goss arrives today so I am no longer by my lonesome which will make for a nice change! Rumour also has it that we are going to do a recon of the time trial and one of the climbs in the Giro (the Monte Serra) tomorrow which will be good! And we are also thinking of heading into Milan to do a bit of shopping either Monday or Wednesday and we have a date with the Pizza restaurant scheduled in there too!! Beth is also back so we are being pampered with massages and Ariane now comes twice a week for Italian lessons!
So things are looking pretty good over here. I think my body has finally started to adjust to the time zones after waking up at 5-530am everyday since I’ve been here, I was relieved this morning to roll over and see my watch was ticking over close to 630am!! Success!! And I’m starting to feel my legs again too which is good considering the training that we have coming up! Not to mention something we call the Giro starting just around the corner….
So until next time, take care
Ciao
Miffy
xx
P.S Uploading photos seems to be a touchy subject for my computer at the moment... I will try again soon but in the mean time feel free to check out my photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=275166&id=746470234&l=7a4717fe97
xxxxxxx
3:12 PM
0 commented
3:12 PM
0 commented
Thursday, June 25, 2009
After a rather late night, I was not surprised to find myself awake at the ungodly hour of 5am. Unable to get back to sleep I admitted defeat and jumped online to wish my twin sister a Happy Birthday. It has been 3 years since we last celebrated our birthdays together as this time last year I’d just arrived in the USA and this year I’m in Italy…When you put it that way, life sounds kind of tough :P
So I had a long chat to my sister and she revealed that for part of my birthday present she’d hacked into my blog and totally redone my layout and so VOILA :D Although I was angry she’d hacked into my account, I forgive her because I think that the layout is bloody awesome, gold star for effort :D
On the agenda today was a 4hr ride with some SE climbs. Have only being been here for less than 24hrs, I was exempt from the efforts and so casually ‘tapped’ up the 10% climbs taking some happy snaps as I went. After we’d finished the efforts we rode round the Swiss border and round a beautiful looking lake (pics below) before riding though a rather hectic Varese back home to Castronno.
Later that afternoon, Lauren suggested that we go out and find ourselves an authentic Italian hot chocolate (ciocolata) to try. Rumour has it that they are so thick that you put a spoon in the middle of it and it stands straight up…needless to say it wasn’t long before we’d jumped on the townies in the direction of Bar Cavour. Our journey did not go incident free mind you, lets just say that I may have lost a little skin on my leg and that the score is Townie 1, Miffy 0. There will be revenge!
So we ordered our ciocolatas and Lauren got hers with panna (cream) and my draw literally dropped when the waiter placed my order in front of me. Sitting there was a cup of chocolate ‘sludge’ which tasted exactly like chocolate pudding…apparently these things are everywhere and it’s simply how the Italians do hot chocolates!! Yummy :)
Loz and her Ciocolata con Panna
Me and my Ciocolata
We then casually rode the townies back home so that we could greet out newest addition to the family, Chloe who had just arrived from the Netherlands after a tour with her Moving Ladies team. It was great to finally see her again as I haven’t seen her since she left Canberra nearly 3 months ago!
the Townies
For dinner that night we embarked on a journey to Varese to go and sample what was some of the best Italian pizza by Dave McPartland, our coach until Marv arrives on the 1st. After trying to decipher the 100 different types of pizza (pizza with mozerella, tomatoes and basil or mozerella tomatoes and oregano etc..) and with the help of the very patient waiter, I managed to order a pizza with fresh tomatoes, basil, artichoke, mushrooms and mozerella. Oh my goodness. Apart from being close to 3 dinner plates in size, the pizza was probably the best thing that has happened since the invention of the Italian hot chocolates! Each of the girls devoured their pizzas whole and were all in agreement that they could probably eat more! Pizza is never going to be the same again. Ever.
After rolling ourselves out of the restaurant, we jumped back on the train to Castronno and dinkied the townies back home where the girls had bought me a delicious chocolate cake and card to celebrate my birthday which was unexpected and very sweet of them :)
So not a bad way to spend my birthday. Nice weather, good ride, yummy food and probably some of the nicest company you could ever ask to spend your day with. I just wish my sister was here to enjoy it all with me!
Tomorrow we have an easy ride and our first Italian lesson! I’ll be fluent before you know it :p
Until next time,
Ciao
xx
So I had a long chat to my sister and she revealed that for part of my birthday present she’d hacked into my blog and totally redone my layout and so VOILA :D Although I was angry she’d hacked into my account, I forgive her because I think that the layout is bloody awesome, gold star for effort :D
On the agenda today was a 4hr ride with some SE climbs. Have only being been here for less than 24hrs, I was exempt from the efforts and so casually ‘tapped’ up the 10% climbs taking some happy snaps as I went. After we’d finished the efforts we rode round the Swiss border and round a beautiful looking lake (pics below) before riding though a rather hectic Varese back home to Castronno.
Later that afternoon, Lauren suggested that we go out and find ourselves an authentic Italian hot chocolate (ciocolata) to try. Rumour has it that they are so thick that you put a spoon in the middle of it and it stands straight up…needless to say it wasn’t long before we’d jumped on the townies in the direction of Bar Cavour. Our journey did not go incident free mind you, lets just say that I may have lost a little skin on my leg and that the score is Townie 1, Miffy 0. There will be revenge!
So we ordered our ciocolatas and Lauren got hers with panna (cream) and my draw literally dropped when the waiter placed my order in front of me. Sitting there was a cup of chocolate ‘sludge’ which tasted exactly like chocolate pudding…apparently these things are everywhere and it’s simply how the Italians do hot chocolates!! Yummy :)
We then casually rode the townies back home so that we could greet out newest addition to the family, Chloe who had just arrived from the Netherlands after a tour with her Moving Ladies team. It was great to finally see her again as I haven’t seen her since she left Canberra nearly 3 months ago!
For dinner that night we embarked on a journey to Varese to go and sample what was some of the best Italian pizza by Dave McPartland, our coach until Marv arrives on the 1st. After trying to decipher the 100 different types of pizza (pizza with mozerella, tomatoes and basil or mozerella tomatoes and oregano etc..) and with the help of the very patient waiter, I managed to order a pizza with fresh tomatoes, basil, artichoke, mushrooms and mozerella. Oh my goodness. Apart from being close to 3 dinner plates in size, the pizza was probably the best thing that has happened since the invention of the Italian hot chocolates! Each of the girls devoured their pizzas whole and were all in agreement that they could probably eat more! Pizza is never going to be the same again. Ever.
After rolling ourselves out of the restaurant, we jumped back on the train to Castronno and dinkied the townies back home where the girls had bought me a delicious chocolate cake and card to celebrate my birthday which was unexpected and very sweet of them :)
So not a bad way to spend my birthday. Nice weather, good ride, yummy food and probably some of the nicest company you could ever ask to spend your day with. I just wish my sister was here to enjoy it all with me!
Tomorrow we have an easy ride and our first Italian lesson! I’ll be fluent before you know it :p
Until next time,
Ciao
xx
xxxxxxx
3:09 PM
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3:09 PM
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
♥ What dreams are made of :)
23hrs of flying and 7 plane meals later, and I’ve finally arrived in Italy! The flight was anything but cruisey but it all quickly became worth it as we began our decent into Milan airport. I was greeted by the stunning view of the sun beaming down on the glistening snow capped muntains which surrounded us. See it doesn’t have to be minus a thousand degrees and miserable to have snow! Pretty sure someone should have told Canberra this.
So I was great at the airport by soigny extraordinaire Beth Duryea in the unmistakeable AIS team van and it was only a short drive to Castronno, Varese which I will be calling home for the next 6 weeks!
Pulling up to the house, it was nothing like I had expected! It is a 4 story ‘complex’ with self contained apartments varying in size on each level. I’m staying in room 6 which I will be sharing with Belinda Goss when she arrives on the 26th and Tiffany Cromwell who arrives on the 2nd of July but for now I’m in here all by myself! Lauren Kitchen is sharing with Amber Halliday and Carlee Taylor, Shara Gillow and Chloe Hosking are bunking together. We are each responsible for cooking/preparing our own meals for the length of the stay which is good as it teaches us to still become independent whilst away racing and gives us the challenge of trying to fend for ourselves in a country where we have no idea what is going on! But fear not, I have come equipped with my Italian phrasebook and dictionary on my Ipod touch and have been informed that we will be having Italian lessons twice a week for the duration of our stay!
After unloading all of my gear, I was faced with my first challenge of a trip to the supermarket to buy some essentials for lunch (so I could eat something which actually resembled real food!). I only had a couple of minutes in the shop but I was quite impressed with my efforts and came out with all the essentials to make probably one of the tastyest sandwiches to date. I would give myself an A for effort in this challenge :)
In the afternoon, I went out with the girls for their second session of the day to spin out the legs. It was about 28 degrees and you couldn’t have wiped the smile off my face! I think it was just after we’d ridden through the middle of Varese and then out pass the Lindt factory onto the windy undulating roads when I said to myself “yeah, I could get use to this :)”
The day was capped off by a trip to the Gelati store which is literally just across the street! The owner hand makes it fresh every morning and it’s safe to say that he will be seeing a hell of a lot more of me whilst I’m here!! Equipped with my Italian dictionary, I was able to decipher all of the flavours and settled for a mixture of stracciatella, banana and coconut. Oh my. I’m pretty sure I’m never going to eat gelati in Canberra ever again! The taste in your mouth as the ice slowly melts on your tongue and the refreshing feeling it gives you as it slides its way down your throat…Jealous yet? :P
So that pretty much sums up my first day in Italia :) It is everything I could have imagined and o so much more! I will upload photos shortly of the house and where we are staying so until then stay tuned!!
Take care
xx
So I was great at the airport by soigny extraordinaire Beth Duryea in the unmistakeable AIS team van and it was only a short drive to Castronno, Varese which I will be calling home for the next 6 weeks!
Pulling up to the house, it was nothing like I had expected! It is a 4 story ‘complex’ with self contained apartments varying in size on each level. I’m staying in room 6 which I will be sharing with Belinda Goss when she arrives on the 26th and Tiffany Cromwell who arrives on the 2nd of July but for now I’m in here all by myself! Lauren Kitchen is sharing with Amber Halliday and Carlee Taylor, Shara Gillow and Chloe Hosking are bunking together. We are each responsible for cooking/preparing our own meals for the length of the stay which is good as it teaches us to still become independent whilst away racing and gives us the challenge of trying to fend for ourselves in a country where we have no idea what is going on! But fear not, I have come equipped with my Italian phrasebook and dictionary on my Ipod touch and have been informed that we will be having Italian lessons twice a week for the duration of our stay!
After unloading all of my gear, I was faced with my first challenge of a trip to the supermarket to buy some essentials for lunch (so I could eat something which actually resembled real food!). I only had a couple of minutes in the shop but I was quite impressed with my efforts and came out with all the essentials to make probably one of the tastyest sandwiches to date. I would give myself an A for effort in this challenge :)
In the afternoon, I went out with the girls for their second session of the day to spin out the legs. It was about 28 degrees and you couldn’t have wiped the smile off my face! I think it was just after we’d ridden through the middle of Varese and then out pass the Lindt factory onto the windy undulating roads when I said to myself “yeah, I could get use to this :)”
The day was capped off by a trip to the Gelati store which is literally just across the street! The owner hand makes it fresh every morning and it’s safe to say that he will be seeing a hell of a lot more of me whilst I’m here!! Equipped with my Italian dictionary, I was able to decipher all of the flavours and settled for a mixture of stracciatella, banana and coconut. Oh my. I’m pretty sure I’m never going to eat gelati in Canberra ever again! The taste in your mouth as the ice slowly melts on your tongue and the refreshing feeling it gives you as it slides its way down your throat…Jealous yet? :P
So that pretty much sums up my first day in Italia :) It is everything I could have imagined and o so much more! I will upload photos shortly of the house and where we are staying so until then stay tuned!!
Take care
xx
xxxxxxx
2:51 PM
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2:51 PM
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